Thanks for taking a look Webnauts.
The size of the main index and category index pages can be configured quite easily. Currently I have them set for 50 posts per page, down from the 100 posts per page it was configured for until recently... I can realistically reduce the number yet further if you feel the pages are still too large.
If I go to just 30 posts, it will reduce the page size down to about 60% of what you saw, and about 30% of what the search engines were seeing until just a few short weeks ago.
The individual post pages are of course much smaller as they include just a single post and attached comments, which makes them easier for the search engines to theme.
I've also changed the code in the template for these pages to use the post title for the page's title tag and keyword tag... and i've written a short generic description tag that also will insert the post title in a manner as to be appropriate as description tag.
Previously, all these individual archived posts shared a common title and set of meta tags... which of course did nothing to help the search engines determine what the pages were about. The thing is, that its a typepad blog, and as such comes with limited potential for optimization.
As for the nested tables, css etc... all our website layouts use full css, of course, but with the blog we are sort of stuck with what they use... even using advanced templates, the typepad interface has it's limitations when compared to a standard webpage... which means i think i am at a loss to be doing anything about the nested tables... this is something it does by default and i doubt is within my control to change.
Further input on this matter would be appreciated, as would anybody's comments as to How Better to Optimize a Type Pad Blog... i do see other typepad blogs coming up in the serps.
As for the rel="nofollow"... yes, as i stated in my pm to you, i have been considering adding them to all our "site wide links" that are pointing to our product site pages.
Its not that these links are not verified, or that they point to unrelated content and/or link to untrusted spammy web pages... but simply because they are "site wide" links pointing to one of our own sites... and I have been led to believe that its not a good idea to have "site wide links" pointing to you.
I wish to leave them there for natural and related navigation, but can use the "nofollow" attribute to tell the search engines that the links are there for traffic, not for link popularity or as an attempt to improve the ranking of our product site.
Is this appropriate to do so... as it is not exactly what the attribute was originally intended for?
Again, i appreciate you having a look, and if you see anything else let me know.
SD
Ps... something else i discovered recently is that the blog was generating a single h1 tag for every post, which means the main and category index pages which were displaying 100 posts, where all generating 100 h1's per page (50 after i reduced the number of posts per page)... now there is only one per page, which i am hoping will eventually help our ranking.
It makes sense that any page with 100 h1's is going to be flagged by the search engines i would think... lol
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